--- title: "Mad Dogs" year: 2011 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/mad-dogs" fi1m_id: "mad-dogs" imdb_id: "tt1652218" tmdb_id: 37737 wikidata_id: "Q1628956" fi1m_score: 65 critics_reviews: 2 published: "2026-10-07T15:33:53.386099+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T15:33:53.950721+00:00" region: "MY" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Mad Dogs (2011) Created by Cris Cole · 1h 00m · Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery ## Identity Mad Dogs - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/mad-dogs - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** mad-dogs - **IMDb ID:** tt1652218 - **TMDB ID:** 37737 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1628956 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1652218/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/37737, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1628956 **Fi1m score: 65** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Lads’ holiday, lovely villa, dead goat in the pool; it goes downhill from there > Cris Cole’s four-part series puts five good actors in a sunlit villa and lets the weather do the menacing. For three episodes it is tense, funny and nasty in the right order; the fourth sits down when it should run. ## Synopsis Four school friends fly out for a week at the villa of the fifth, Alvo (Ben Chaplin), who has done well abroad and wants them to see it. Baxter (John Simm), Quinn (Philip Glenister), Woody (Max Beesley) and Rick (Marc Warren) arrive expecting sun, drink and the old jokes. Then Alvo asks them to help him collect a boat that is not quite his, a dead goat turns up in the swimming pool, and a short man in a Tony Blair mask walks in off the terrace. What he does at the end of the first episode is the premise of the series, and we will leave it to you. The four are left in a house they do not own with a problem that will not keep. ## Review Cris Cole’s *Mad Dogs* sends four old school friends abroad to visit the fifth, Alvo (Ben Chaplin), who has done well out there and wants everyone to see it. It is a lads’ holiday that turns, within an hour of screen time, into a crime story, and the trick it is attempting is to make the turn without changing the weather. Nobody skulks in an alley. Everything bad happens by a swimming pool in hard white light. For three of its four episodes that trick holds, and it is a good one. The last episode lets go of it, and of most of the tension, which is why we can only recommend it with a caveat. The casting is the reason to watch. John Simm’s Baxter is the sensible one, which in this company means the one who says the sensible thing and is ignored. Philip Glenister plays Quinn as a man who has been the one everyone listened to since he was fourteen and has started to notice they have stopped. Max Beesley’s Woody is loud, broke and the first to panic; Marc Warren’s Rick is the one who went quiet at school and has stayed quiet. Chaplin, as the host, is the best of them, generous in the way a bully is generous, buying drinks and boats and telling his guests how grateful they should be. Every scene with the five of them is a scene about who outranks whom, and nobody has to say it. Adrian Shergold and James Hawes direct, and they keep the camera out in the daylight. The villa is white walls, blue pool and a view of the sea, and the dread is made of small wrong things in a frame that should be a holiday photograph. The goat in the pool made us laugh. The man in the mask, a minute later, did not, and the gap between the two reactions is the show in miniature. We spent the rest of the first episode slightly cold in the sun, which is exactly what it wanted. Cole writes men who talk over each other. The banter is quick and true, old nicknames and older grudges, and it sharpens whenever one of them is frightened; the characters reach for a joke the way other people reach for a drink. There is a monologue from Beesley in the second half, a long, tired account of what Woody’s life has come to, that is the best thing the series does, and Beesley plays it with his back to the view. The directors have the sense to hold on him. The trouble is that the plot underneath the talk is thin, and the talk is asked to cover it. The four decide on a plan, then argue themselves out of it, then arrive at the same plan an episode later. By the third hour we found the bickering had stopped sounding like character and started sounding like padding. The finale we will not describe; what we can say is that it ends an episode early in spirit and then keeps going, and that the last twenty minutes have less at stake than the first twenty did. We were tense for three evenings and then, on the fourth, we were waiting for it to stop. The two reviews we have read split it: one calls it unsettling and highly watchable, the other finds the ending flat after an entertaining run. We think both are right and the flat ending is the smaller sin. Three strong hours of television with a weak fourth is still a good week. It went on to four series and fourteen episodes, and it is the first four that matter; the villa is where the idea lives. Watch it at home, over two nights, with people who went to school with you. The arguing will be familiar. The goat, we hope, will not. *Fi1m score 65, published 7 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **How long is Mad Dogs, and what is it rated?** *Mad Dogs* has episodes of about 1h 00m. It is a comedy and crime series. **Where can I watch Mad Dogs in Malaysia?** *Mad Dogs* is not on any streaming or rental service in Malaysia at the moment. It is available in 4 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **What should I watch after Mad Dogs?** After *Mad Dogs*, try [*Sexy Beast*](https://film.one/film/sexy-beast) (2000, Fi1m 85): A retired crook’s Spanish villa, invaded by Ben Kingsley; the sun has never been nastier. Then [*Shallow Grave*](https://film.one/film/shallow-grave) (1994, Fi1m 78): Three flatmates, one body, a bag of money, and friendship lasting about a week; and [*A Simple Plan*](https://film.one/film/a-simple-plan) (1998, Fi1m 86): Found cash in the snow; the plan is simple and the people are not. ### Reviews we read (2) - **The Guardian**, Andrew Anthony (75/100, inferred): Anthony finds Mad Dogs an unsettling, highly watchable drama with a clearly positive verdict. He praises the strong performances and the writer’s ear for strained banter and latent aggression. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/feb/13/promise-kosminsky-mad-dogs-review) - **Den of Geek**, Ryan Lambie (35/100, inferred): Lambie finds the finale unexpectedly flat and dissatisfying after an otherwise entertaining series. He praises Max Beesley’s well-acted monologue, but faults the prolonged bickering and the loss of tension at the conclusion. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/mad-dogs-episode-4-review-series-finale/) ## Details - **Created by:** Cris Cole - **Creator:** Cris Cole - **Director:** Adrian Shergold, James Hawes - **Writer:** Cris Cole - **Producer:** Andy Harries, Spencer Campbell, Sanne Wohlenberg - **Cast:** John Simm as Baxter; Max Beesley as Woody; Ben Chaplin as Alvo; Philip Glenister as Quinn; Marc Warren as Rick; Tomás Pozzi as Tony; Eloise Joseph as Lottie; Tim Woodward as Dominic - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Release (Malaysia):** 10 February 2011 - **Genres:** Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery ## Where to watch in Malaysia Not streaming, renting or buying in Malaysia at the last check. Also available in: AT, CA, CH, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Sexy Beast* (2000), Fi1m 85: A retired crook’s Spanish villa, invaded by Ben Kingsley; the sun has never been nastier. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/sexy-beast.md) - *Shallow Grave* (1994), Fi1m 78: Three flatmates, one body, a bag of money, and friendship lasting about a week. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/shallow-grave.md) - *A Simple Plan* (1998), Fi1m 86: Found cash in the snow; the plan is simple and the people are not. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-simple-plan.md) - *The Trip* (2010): Two middle-aged men bickering at restaurants; the same wounds, with better food. - *Force Majeure* (2014), Fi1m 84: A family ski holiday and one moment of cowardice nobody can stop talking about. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/force-majeure.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/mad-dogs